The Journey to Unboss: how we're learning to lead differently

“The answer to a challenge is rarely with a leader, but it’s the role of the leader to create the space for the team to come up with the answer!” 

This was a key insight from a recent discussion on 21st century leadership hosted by Novartis with Adam Grant and leaders of tomorrow from Novartis and Swiss universities. 

For a long time, I thought great people + great products = great performance. The reality is more complex. It’s not just the sum of the people, it’s how they work together, challenge and build on each other’s ideas. It’s the power of the team! 

Great teams don’t happen by coincidence. They are the result of an organization’s culture and leadership, both of which are increasingly the focus for investors as a future predictor of success.

At Novartis, we want to galvanize a new generation of leaders who will continue our journey to build an inspired, curious and unbossed organization, as we seek to unleash the power of our people and reimagine medicine.

What do we mean by Unboss?

“I want to find a job where I can have my voice heard.”

Another standout statement from a student panelist at this year’s Universum Awards in Switzerland, during a discussion I joined on bridging today’s leaders with early talent. 

What we continue to learn from these dialogues is that the emerging workforce is also looking for a new kind of leadership: one that reflects the huge shift in society’s expectations brought about by rapid advances in digital and data technology and the knowledge revolution, which is fundamentally changing the way we work.  They don’t want old-fashioned micro-managers or hierarchies; instead they want collaborative, purpose-led leaders who create clarity, serve their people, are open to feedback and focused on removing obstacles and empowering their teams.  

"The UNBOSS organization involves everybody instead of the few, it functions through mechanisms instead of structures and it builds on purpose instead of profit." Lars Kolind

Our strong sense of purpose at Novartis to improve and extend people’s lives has always inspired our people and driven our innovation. In light of these changes however, the company culture that worked in the past is no longer fit for the future. Our biggest asset is our people and we want to create a culture that inspires them to do meaningful work, and in which they can be curious, take smart risks and see failure as an opportunity to learn.  

What does Unboss look like?

We unboss by flipping the pyramid and developing “servant leaders”. So you no longer have a team in support of a boss; you have a boss in support of a team. 

As Prof. Amy Edmondson, the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, recently explained to me in an interview, “so much of the value creation process today is collaborative. No individual person has all the answers anymore.”

Whilst we now have more information than ever before at our fingertips, ambiguity and uncertainty have also increased. Instead of trying to provide all the answers on their own, a leader should seek to unearth them in their team by setting clear priorities and connecting insights and information to fuel solution-orientated discussion and collaboration. We want our leaders to focus on nurturing a psychologically safe environment in which people are willing to speak up and bring diverse experiences, skills and perspectives to the table.

The best leaders are those who are comfortable hiring people who think differently than they do; who listen more and talk less!

How are we unbossing our leaders?

There is no organizational change without individual change. Key to achieving behavioral change is self-awareness. This represents one of the biggest challenges on our journey.

We are lucky at Novartis to have over 75% of our senior leaders come from within the organization. This means they lead from a wealth of in-house knowledge and experience, and know how to navigate the organization to get things done. However, as we seek to transform our culture, they must learn to lead differently – to be the change they want to see.

Which is why our top 300 leaders, including myself and my colleagues on the executive committee, have embarked on a year-long leadership development program to increase self-awareness and build our unboss capabilities.  This in-house program, based on the adult development work by Prof. Bob Kegan, includes experiential F2F sessions, webinars, social learning, peer-to-peer mentoring and personalized coaching, and I'm pleased to say has been recognized by CEB Gartner as best in class for embodying servant leadership through team involvement in the leaders’ development.

By 2022, we intend that all of our leaders at Novartis will have gone through refreshed leadership journeys.

One of the best ways we can all achieve self-awareness is through genuine feedback. As leaders, we need to make it safe for people to give us feedback and to stay open, curious and accountable in taking it on-board. We have therefore developed a new 360-degree online assessment tool that allows our leaders to get regular honest feedback from colleagues and team members, which we encourage them to share with their teams and agree together to change One Thing.

It’s powerful. Personally, I have gained more insights into my leadership in the last 12 months than in the previous twelve years! The One Thing I am currently working on is giving my team more real-time feedback.   I don’t always get this right, but leadership is a work-in-progress and I’m learning from my failures.

Our journey continues

Transforming behaviors is one of the most difficult things to do—especially for a company that has been around in one form or another for over two centuries. It involves daily confrontation and a significant shift in our habits and attitudes, even if those around us are resistant to change. At times, it requires a painful degree of honesty and vulnerability. 

The rewards, however, are huge. When our people see leaders who are demonstrating humility and courage in the face of personal risk, who are OK with imperfection and failure as a necessary part of growth, then this cultivates an environment of trust, safety and learning, which in turn leads to greater engagement, innovation and productivity.

This is a journey. We won’t get it right straight away; it takes practice. When things go wrong, we need to keep at it. If we do, eventually the culture will monumentally shift…one person, one behavior at a time. Because I truly believe that if we all commit to change One Thing - and are open about sharing the challenges and opportunities we encounter- we can move mountains!